Thursday, September 10, 2015

Whoa - This Sounds Familiar

Cincinnati's city manager fired Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell on Wednesday, accusing him of crushing officers' morale and failing to communicate effectively with his staff.

"Mr. Blackwell has not provided the necessary leadership to ensure a cohesive operating environment within the department," City Manager Harry Black wrote. "As such, morale is at an unprecedented low level, and the general sentiment throughout the department is that Mr. Blackwell's leadership style has created a work environment of hostility and retaliation."

Black said he conducted an investigation that revealed serious management issues, some of which were revealed through conversations with the department's brass

The police chief allegedly threatened and berated individuals in front of their subordinates, superior officers and members of the public, the city manager wrote. Some employees of the police department sought treatment for anxiety and stress as a result of these interactions, he said.

Wow, this sounds exactly like what occurs at comstat every week. I had the unfortunate experience of attending one comstat meeting where the supt absolutely degraded and berated a commander in front of all of us, over 100 people. It was so bad that I actually felt sorry for the commander and wished he, or other top brass would've stood up to McCarthy and said enough is enough. But no one said a thing b/c they didn't want to be the next to be publicly humiated in front of their peers. So everyone turns into yes men and those that speak out seemed to be forced out. Now in the district, I see how commanders don't try to fight crime the way they should, instead they just try to get numbers up so they don't get berated at comstat and don't lose their commander spot.

Over in New York bratton strips copper for doing his job! Not race related coward bratton but this copper did nothing wrong! No wonder crime is out of control in New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles!

"The police chief allegedly threatened and berated individuals in front of their subordinates, superior officers and members of the public, the city manager wrote. Some employees of the police department sought treatment for anxiety and stress as a result of these interactions, he said.Interesting."

Boy, there's a list a mile long of CPD Supervisors and command staff that fit that description to a T. Sadly, many of them are collecting 6 figure pensions.

From that story..."Blackwell took the oath of office in September 2013, becoming the department's 14th chief. Before that, he served 26 years in the Columbus, Ohio, Division of Police, where he reached the rank of deputy chief. "

Any long established law enforcement organization that brings in an outsider to run it is:

A. Admitting failure in that it cannot develop competent personnel from its own ranks. Or

B. That the administration in power wishes to destroy that organization for political purposes.

That latter was certainly the case when Weis and McHatchetman were brought in. Even when O.W. Wilson came to be Superintendent the CPD was suffering from crisis of public confidence and a failure to modernize. Wilson helped to restore confidence, centralized control of the department and introduced modern radio, phones and motorized patrol. Wilson's immediate predecessor, Timothy O'Connor used to return unused budget money to the city and cops had to scrounge office supplies and furniture from the Board of Education. Wilson demanded and got a much higher budget for the CPD.

The main focus of the tenures of Weis and McHatchetman is to cut the costs of this department and the citizens and the officers be damned. Multiple Merit Supervisors and Command personnel with little real experience are now the norm. Vast neighborhoods have lost their police service, few new recruits are hired, few new cars and antiquated cobbled together radio and computer systems are used and the money saved is funneled into VRI.

Stay Safe. This city and this Department are hanging on by the fingertips of the few good people left. God forbid we get another outsider as Superintendent.

After the sup berates a commander, he should then take over the district for the next month to show everyone how its done. Show us all how an experienced season police leader would stop all these murders, shootings, robberies and drug dealing. Then compare his performance to everyone else. The only good thing I can say of him is that he has given merit bumps to a few who actually deserved it.